Preparative separation of human B and T lymphocytes by free flow electrophoresis

An electrophoretic method for the quantitative separation of human B and T lymphocytes in a carrier-free system is presented. The method is based on the fact that B and T lymphocytes show marked overlap in their size and density characteristics, but differ sufficiently in surface charge to be separable by electrophoresis. The technique is performed in phosphate-buffered saline and appears to be especially suitable for the enrichment of nonstimulated, functionally intact lymphocytes which can be directly used for further immunological or biochemical studies.